Imagine doing something boring, like riding the subway or typing away at an expense report,
and suddenly your body sends you a very clear message - you need to have sex.
Not like a sex fantasy about someone you’re attracted to.
Rather, you get an intense feeling in your genitals that can only be relieved by sex.
You try to ignore it, but it’s not going away - and it doesn’t care how inappropriate
it is for the moment.
For a small number of women, this uncomfortable situation is reality - and it’s one of the
rarest and newest sexual disorders out there.
Titled Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder, it’s not just a one-time thing that makes
itself known at an awkward time.
This disorder causes sudden and persistent genital arousal without any current sexual
stimulation or desire.
This unknown disorder was at first mistaken for hypersexuality by puzzled doctors, who
assumed that this was normal sexual desire gone out of control.
But examining a few people who suffered from this condition indicated that it was completely
separate from sexual desire.
This has led researchers to wonder if the name is appropriate.
After all, the women aren’t aroused.
They’re being troubled by a nerve reaction in their genitals that is giving them sensations
they don’t want.
One thing is for sure - the women experiencing this condition all report the symptoms are
extreme.
When describing the symptoms of the disorder, “arousal” is the furthest thing from the
minds of sufferers.
They feel intense pressure and irritation in their genital area which can lead to contractions
or vaginal congestion.
Sometimes spontaneous orgasms can happen, but not in all cases.
Sufferers sometimes try to relieve the pressure by masturbating and triggering an orgasm,
but this only lasts a short time if that.
Many sufferers report having to have multiple orgasms in a short time to experience any
relief - not something that’s feasible when it occurs in the middle of a workday.
So what causes this bizarre disorder?
There are so few cases of Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder that no definite cause has
been determined yet.
Studies indicate that it may be exacerbated by stress, but that’s probably not the source
of the problem.
Originally doctors assumed it was psychologically based, but attempts to treat the condition
through counseling didn’t show results.
Now it’s believed the causes may be neurological or vascular, with conditions like Tarlov cysts
or arterial malformations in the pelvic region pressing on a nerve that causes this unusual
condition.
So what’s the solution?
The women suffering from the condition are desperate for a cure.
Treatments have varied - and so has the success rate.
Most early cases were treated with a combination of psychotherapy and pelvic exercises, and
while the therapy may or may not have been useful, some women report relief from the
exercises.
In cases where a physical cause can be determined, some minor surgeries have relieved the condition
by removing the pressure.
But the disorder isn’t fully understood yet, and no one is quite sure why a medicine
called Varenicline, normally used to treat nicotine addiction, relieved one woman’s
symptoms.
But many women suffering from the condition have a bigger problem - getting anyone to
take them seriously.
When Jeannie Allen came down with the syndrome in her mid-forties, she was one of the first
people ever diagnosed - and she immediately found out that her condition would make her
the subject of mockery.
One of the first doctors she talked to even commented that she must be every man’s dream
- to which she snapped back that he should try to imagine what it would be like to have
an orgasm every minute of the day.
She was so frustrated that she eventually went public, under the pen name Jean Lund,
and became one of the first people to ever share exactly what it was like to live with
this condition long-term.
She described it as taking the joy out of life and leaving her unable to concentrate
on anything else.
Another woman, a forty-year-old flower vendor who became the subject of an early clinical
study, reported that the episodes happened spontaneously with no trigger and left her
exhausted and unable to plan her day effectively.
She had previously had an attack of the condition seven years before and found relief after
a surgery that removed a ruptured ovary.
But now it was back, and doctors were as clueless as she was.
They tried the medicine carbamazepine, an anticonvulsant, on her and she stopped after
a month due to a lack of improvement.
However, in her case, supportive therapy sessions seemed to do the trick as they reduced the
frequency of symptoms and she was eventually able to resume a normal life.
Causes may vary, but one medical condition repeats as a likely cause of the condition.
What is a Tarlov cyst?
The human body is sensitive with a lot of little areas that can go awry, and even the
smallest problem can have unexpected consequences.
The Tarlov cyst are tiny cysts in the spinal canal near the base of the spinal cord and
are known for their walls filled with nerve fibers.
First discovered by Isadore Tarlov in 1938, he at first assumed them to not cause any
adverse symptoms.
However, future investigations indicated they can cause pain, spasticity, and muscle weakness,
headaches, and bladder dysfunction among other symptoms.
They can wreak havoc on the nervous system and create unpredictable symptoms - including
genital dysfunction, as they happen to be right by the nerves that affect the genitals.
When Professor Barry Komisaruk, one of the first researchers investigating Persistent
Genital Arousal Syndrome, looked at the MRIs of sufferers, he was shocked to discover that
two -thirds of them had Tarlov cysts.
So there may finally be hope for the women being driven crazy by this strange disorder.
Eleven women with the disorder had their Tarlov cysts operated on by Dr. Feigenbaum, a spinal
neurosurgeon who had been studying the disorder.
They became part of a case study on the disorder, and when then they were interviewed after
their recovery, eight of the eleven said their symptoms had gone away!
The remaining three reported significant relief from before surgery.
This was the best evidence yet that sacral nerve compression was the root cause of the
disorder - but not all cases of the disorder have the cysts, and not all people who improve
have the surgery.
And for Jeannie Allen, these advances weren’t much help.
She never had a Tarlov cyst, and doctors were at a loss for how to treat her.
She eventually quit her job to dedicate herself to advocating for more research and support
for women with her condition.
Despite the growing awareness, it’s still a very rare disorder - while it’s believed
hundreds of women may suffer from the condition, case studies have only looked at a population
of under thirty women.
How is the growing awareness of this disorder helping these women?
For the first time, women suffering from this strange disorder have a source for help other
than doctors who may not fully understand it.
They can find fellow sufferers online and learn how they’ve been coping.
This allows them to try various solutions including exercise, meditation, and medication
that may or may not be helpful.
While many find surgery as a solution, local anesthetic hasn’t been successful in preventing
the disorder - while the intense feeling is concentrated in one specific area, it doesn’t
originate there.
It’s generated in the nervous system, and any solution has to go deeper than skin deep.
Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder only affects those with a certain set of equipment, so
those with the other set have to be breathing a sigh of relief...right?
Not exactly.
There’s a similar condition that affects men, and it may be even more challenging and
uncomfortable.
It’s called priapism, and it causes similar persistent arousal of the genitals - that
manifests as a prolonged, uncomfortable erection that persists even in the absence of any stimulation.
Most men remember that awkward moment when you really can’t stand up because the bulge
in your pants has decided to make itself known, but this is an extended erection that can
make it difficult to walk, urinate, or concentrate.
Like Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder, it can be caused by a number of causes, including
sickle cell disease, nerve damage, drug use, or trauma to the penis.
Another reason to be wary of getting kicked in the genitals.
So is there any good news for those suffering from this uncomfortable condition?
Well, priapism is more common than Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder, and doctors know
a lot more about how to treat it.
Unfortunately, it also carries more health risks.
An erection that lasts too long can cause serious damage - as many ads for erectile
dysfunction medication have warned.
As most cases of priapism are caused by the inability of the penis to drain blood properly,
the most common treatment is to numb the area and drain it with a minimally invasive procedure.
If blood drainage isn’t a problem, treating it can be as easy as cold compresses, but
in worst-case scenarios, surgery may be performed.
And the clock is ticking - permanent damage can begin after only four hours.
It’s an embarrassing but not uncommon medical problem - it’s estimated that it may occur
in as many as one in twenty thousand men a year.
These have got to be some of the strangest sexual disorders doctors encounter, right?
Not quite!
Doctors have encountered some genuinely bizarre sexual disorders - some of which they don’t
have any real answers for yet.
One of the most troubling sexual disorders is retrograde ejaculation, which has terrified
quite a few couples.
In this disorder, everything goes perfectly normally - until it’s time for the guy to
ejaculate.
He feels like everything went fine, but nothing’s coming out.
This is a rare disorder caused by a malfunctioning valve between the urethra and the bladder,
where the semen doesn’t travel down the escape hatch and instead shoots backward into
the bladder.
It can make it difficult to conceive but doesn’t really have any serious health risks.
The usual culprit?
A side effect from medication.
There are few things better than that post-sex bliss, right?
Not for the people with the next condition.
Post-orgasmic illness syndrome is another condition that has puzzled doctors.
For those few men suffering from it, whenever they ejaculate they immediately come down
with a series of flu-like symptoms.
That pleasant feeling of an orgasm is immediately replaced by a feverish feeling, a runny nose,
and the intense need to lie down.
Not exactly a happy ending, and the cause may be even more bizarre.
According to Dr. Marcel Waldinger, one of the few doctors to study this condition, the
men may be allergic to their own semen.
This has led doctors to experiment with a cure by injecting these men with a diluted
solution made from their own sperm.
Most of these conditions only manifest during or after sex - but this next one might be
painfully obvious much earlier.
Phimosis is a malformation of the foreskin surrounding the penis that makes it too tight,
essentially forming a band around the tip that can make sex - or any other pressure
on the penis - extremely painful.
This disorder exists from birth but only becomes obvious when someone tries to have sex or
masturbate.
The good news is, this disorder isn’t nearly as mysterious as the others.
It’s a simple skin problem and can be corrected by a circumcision procedure that’s slightly
more extensive than the average, removing all the foreskin instead of only a part.
The biggest challenge for sufferers?
Going into the doctor and admitting this embarrassing problem.
The next disorder might sound less terrifying than the others - but it can make for some
awkward conversations.
Due to a problem during the development of the fetus, it’s possible for male children
to be born with two penises.
Called diphallia, this is a rare condition that’s most surprising for the fact that
in some cases both penises function for both urination and ejaculation.
One is usually smaller than the other, but that’s the only distinction.
This disorder can also manifest as part of larger developmental abnormalities that require
surgical intervention, and each case is handled independently as doctors figure out an approach
that will lead to the most normal life for the affected child.
It’s rare for adults with diphallia who have not had the condition treated to be found,
so unpleasant surprises in the bedroom are unlikely.
With many sexual disorders like Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder, doctors are often
unsure of whether the cause is physical, psychological, or due to side effects from an exterior stimulus.
That’s why those suffering from these rare disorders often find that their fellow sufferers
are the best source of information as everyone tries to puzzle out these weird quirks of
human sexuality.
For more on another bizarre sexual disorder, check out “What Is Sexsomnia (Sleep Sex
Disease?)”, or check out “Female Orgasm vs. Male Organism - How Do They Compare”
for more on the nature of sexuality.